The use of antidepressants by pregnant women has been associated with autism, adding one more factor to the many that expectant mothers with a history of depression need to weigh when balancing their own health and that of their unborn child's. But do the rest of us need to worry about exposure to Prozac, other antidepressants and pharmaceuticals in our drinking water? One recent study linking water born antidepressants and autism says: maybe we do.

Antidepressants in Water Linked to Autism

Scientists at Idaho State University exposed guppies to prozac through tank water and observed gene expression also seen in autistic people. The report suggesting "that small amounts of psychiatric medications found in the drinking supply may be a cause of autism" was immediately criticized as jumping to conclusions not proven. The role of the genes expressed in autism is unknown. Also unknown is how the response between fish and humans differ with similar drug exposures.

Still, researchers are excited by the finding. "An environmental cause [of autism] is really not on the radar for a lot of people," study author Michael Thomas, a professor of evolutionary biology at Idaho State University in Pocatello, told Bloomberg News. "My sincere hope is that this opens the door to a new question and allows people to look into that possibility."

Lots of Prescription Drugs Found in Drinking Water

A study in 2008 found detectible levels of at least one of more than 100 different prescription drugs in the water supply serving 41 million Americans. Prescription drugs find their way into surface and drinking water supplies in a variety of ways:

1. Drugs and vitamins are often not completely metabolized by people and are excreted out into the sewer system. Because many sewage treatment plants are not equipped to filter out drugs, they simply wash into rivers and head downstream.
2. Improper disposal of unused prescriptions pollute our water ways. Advice circulated for years that unused drugs should be flushed down toilets might prevent misuse of unused drugs by people, but it's not the best solution to pharmaceutical disposal. AP found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals are thrown out each year by hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
3. Drugs of all kinds are routinely administered to livestock, either directly or in drug-laced feed. Rainwater runoff from animal feedlots has been found to contain antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and all sorts of other drugs.

Protecting People from Prescription Drug Water Pollution

1. Would a Black Berkey Filter Element Work? There are simply too many varieties of pharmaceuticals for a water filtering fully system to be tested to see how it performs. As the World Health Organization states" Practical difficulties associated with implementing monitoring programs for pharmaceuticals include the lack of standardized sampling and analysis protocols, high costs and the limited availability of the analytical instruments required to measure the diverse range of pharmaceuticals that may be present." What we do know from existing test results, is that the purification process used by the Black Berkey filter elements remove more pollutants and chemicals than most any other water filter system available on the market today. According to the WHO, "conventional water treatment processes, such as chlorination, can remove approximately 50% of these compounds, whereas more advanced treatment processes, such as ozonation, advanced oxidation, activated carbon, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, can achieve higher removal rates."
2. Would a Black Berkey Filter Element Work? (Cont.) You may have noticed that there are some very popular water filter companies that are starting to advertise that their filters remove pharmaceuticals from the drinking water. These filters are made with lower quality filter ingredients, so a logical train of thought would be that if their filters remove them, and if the filtration media used is similar, then the black berkeys would be effective also. However, many of these larger companies are not providing test results to back up these claims, in addition to the fact that slight variations in filter media types can produce varying filtration results. Thus, at this point we reserve our positive endorsement for both these companies making the claims without testing results and our own black berkeys (until we have tests in hand), and rather provide this information so that the consumer can make the most informed decision possible. The reality is that this is a relatively new public concern and the water filtration industry as a whole needs to catch up quickly.
3. Dispose of Prescriptions Responsibly. Drugs should never be flushed.

   1. The best way to dispose of prescription drugs is to turn unneeded medicines over to a pharmaceutical drug collection service such as this one in St. Louis, MO.
   2. The second best way to dispose of drugs is in your trash collection. Mix pills and medicines with coffee grounds or kitty litter to help prevent prescription drug abuse and seal in a plastic bag encapsulate the drugs and prevent leakage (though your landfill should also be lined to prevent that).